Many applications display informative messages to the user from time to time. One common category of message is a warning or error message indicating a problem, or problems, with an action taken by the user. In many cases, multiple messages can result from an operation performed or attempted by a user. For example, in a system where one action by the user might trigger a large number of actual actions in the software, and where that software has a highly complex set of rules, the action may trigger a large number of error messages. Therefore, the cause-and-effect relationship between the action performed or attempted by the user (cause) and the error (effect) may be difficult to determine.